This invention relates to a device for preparing and feeding address labels from a web in which the address labels were generated from a computer and high speed printer.
In the preparation of labels for the mass mailing of magazines, envelopes, newspapers or the like, address labels generated from computers are printed by high speed laser printers in columns and rows on sheets of a web or continuous form paper, usually having perforations at pre-determined spaces along the web and having transport holes either along the sides or center of the web. Depending upon the input to the computer, and the demands of the user, the names and addresses are printed in varying numbers of columns; this can be a single column, or two, three, four or more columns to a given width of webbed material. In addition, the height of each name and address combination may vary depending upon the number of lines in each address. Improvements in labelling devices have been provided to vary the feed mechanism for a sheet of web material so that varying lengths and heights of labels can be cut from the web. One such improvement is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,435 entitled "Label Cutting Head," inventor Stump et al and assigned to the Assignee of the present invention. The '435 patent alleviated the major gear changes necessary in order to change the label cutting head so that varying sizes of labels could easily be cut from the web.
The devices as illustrated in the prior art used pin feeder means to drive the computer produced list of names and addresses through a guillotine cutting blade to cut a single row containing a multiple number of names and addresses to a given height. The strip of paper cut by the guillotine is fed laterally to a rotary blade which cuts the strip into separate labels depending upon the number of columns appearing on the web. Then each label is carried to a glue-applying head and application station where the label is applied to the mailing piece.
Machines of the above-described type are currently available and are constructed to cut the continuous web into individual strips, and the strips into individual labels of varying heights and lengths. The improvements in the prior art permitted a rapid changeover to vary the height and width of the labels cut from the web. However, a new and major problem has arisen with respect to high speed computer printers which produce continuous webs of address labels.
Particularly, the new high speed laser printers do not print over the entire height of an individual page in the web. For example, if an individual sheet of the web which is attached to adjacent sheets by perforations is eleven inches high, the laser printer can only print from approximately one-half inch below the top of the perforation to approximately one-half inch above the bottom perforation of the sheet. This means that on an eleven inch high paper, the printer can only print on approximately ten inches of the overall height of the paper. On the sheet immediately following the previously printed sheet, the same restrictions apply and the first one-half inch of paper is not printed upon. As the sheets are attached at their perforated ends, this results in a total of one inch of non-printed area between adjoining sheets. In most instances this does not present a problem as the sheets are torn apart or burst and then collated or sent out as individual sheets. However, in the preparation of labels from a laser printer, this does create a new and heretofore unsolved problem.
The one inch gap between adjacent joined sheets results in a band of labels being generated having no address printed thereon. In the prior automated label application systems, there has been no practical way to remove this non-printed label prior to affixing it to a mail piece. Thus, each time there was a transition from one page of printed addresses to the next page, there were one or more blank (depending on the number of columns of labels on an individual sheet) labels applied to the mail pieces.
Due to these problems, laser printers have not been used to generate labels which are designed or adapted to be used on the automatic label application machines previously available.
There also has not been a device or method by which information can be placed on the web between address labels, and have this information removed by cutting it from the web and disposing of it. It might be advantageous to be able to put machine control information at pre-determined positions along the web and then remove it after it has served its purpose.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a label preparing and feeding device which can prepare and apply labels to mailing pieces while removing non-addressed areas between adjacent sheets of the continuous web.
It is a related object to supply a label preparing and feeding device which can remove blank or non-addressed areas from the web regardless of whether the address labels are prepared in a single column or multiple columns.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a label preparing and feeding device which can remove the blank or non-addressed area from computer generated webs of address labels and not slow down or impede the through put of the machine.
A related object is to provide such a label feeding device which will remove the non-addressed areas while maintaining the synchronization of the label cutting and application with the movement of the mail pieces through the label application area.
Yet another object is to provide such a label feeding device which is economical in manufacture and reliable in operation.
Applicant's solution to this problem is to provide an improved label preparation and feeding device which compensates for and removes the non-addressed areas from webs of address labels generated as described above. Applicant's inventive device causes the web of addresses to be incrementally fed into a cutting device a distance equal to the height of a label when not adjacent to a non-addressed area. The label is cut and applied to the mailpiece in the conventional manner.
When a non-addressed area is adjacent a label, the invention causes the feeder to feed the web past the first cutter an amount equal to the label height plus the height of the non-addressed area. The first cutter is then activated to cut the combined height of web fed from the supply of web and a second cutter cuts the non-addressed area from the address label. The non-addressed area is removed and the address label is applied to the mail piece.
The web is printed in such a format that the non-addressed areas occur at regular, equally spaced distances along the web. The feeder mechanism provides for feeding the additional amount of web corresponding to the non-addressed area at the proper time in the web feeding cycle. This is accomplished by means of a segmented feeder wheel having a raised portion on its circumference. The raised portion engages a high speed wheel during a selected period of each cycle or revolution of the segmented feeder wheel. This corresponds to the time when the non-addressed area is fed into the cutter. The segmented feeder wheel drives the web feeder at a faster rate causing the non-addressed plus the adjacent address label to be fed past the first cutter in the same time period that normally only one address label is fed past the first cutter.
A ratchet wheel is mechanically connected to the feeder and/or first cutter and is incremented each time a label is cut. The ratchet wheel is connected to and rotates a cam wheel which controls the second cutter. Each revolution of the cam wheel corresponds to the feeding of a series of printed address labels between non-addressed areas. The next incremental advance of the ratchet wheel occurs when an addressed and non-addressed label is fed, with the non-addressed area incremented past the second cutter. The cam wheel activates the second cutter at this point in the cycle and the non-addressed area is cut from the addressed label.
There are also provided pawl and ratchet means on the feeder mechanism to maintain synchronization between the feeder mechanism whether it is feeding a single address label or an address label plus a non-addressed area and movement of the mail pieces through the label application area.